Originally Posted by
gsa103
The high torque value is designed to firmly clamp the cogs together and distribute the load across all the cogs. With low torque, each cog acts essentially independently. Theoretically, the high torque value is better for preventing gouged free-hubs. And yes, 40 N-m (30 ft*lbs) is far tighter than I would have ever imagined. You really need a 16in wrench.
I tighten my car lug nuts to ~80 foot pounds, so I put a bit less than half of that pressure (adjusted for wrench length) on my cassettes.